Recent advances in hardware and software have permitted an increased awareness and development effort in the area of interactive "synthesized" environments. The goal of this development effort is to provide a synthesized environment which is so realistic as to be virtually indistinguishable from the absolute or actual reality. The application of these inner-related synthesized realities are diverse: vehicle simulation, preconstruction, architectural review and walk-through, video game-like entertainment, molecular mapping and engineering, microsurgery, communication and educational applications.
The use of the vehicle simulator which may simulate the operation of vehicles, such as race cars and aircraft, for entertainment is becoming widespread. Also, the apparatus which simulates the operation of vehicles are increasingly being used as training devices for government and industry vehicle operators. Such apparatus may be programmed to realistically simulate the motion of the vehicle through two or three-dimensional space which also can provide relatively realistic simulation of the control of the vehicle. Importantly, it is safe and more cost effective for a person to be entertained or trained on a video simulator, as compared with the real vehicle. However, one area that has been substantially overlooked is a method and apparatus for recording and displaying real images that can be used with a virtual reality system.